The Easiest Tres Leches Cake ever

I made this cake four times last week. That is how good it is! Basically every event I went to I brought it, also because it's super easy. Just use yellow box cake mix and buy the three milks, and you're good to go.

The directions I used said to poke holes while the cake was still hot, but I don't think it really mattered. Just make sure you get the holes evenly everywhere on the cake.

Pour slowly or else you'll make a mess...

Someone got CREAM FACED!

Ingredients

Cake

1 box (1 lb 2.25 oz) yellow cake mix with pudding
1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs

Sauce

1 1/3 cup whipping cream

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

Topping

1 cup whipping cream

1 box of strawberries (optional) 

 

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish. In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed about 30 seconds or until blended. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter into baking dish. Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

2. Meanwhile, in large bowl, mix sauce ingredients. Using long-tined fork or chopstick, pierce hot cake in baking dish every 1 to 2 inches. Slowly pour sauce mixture over cake. Refrigerate cake at least 3 hours to chill. (Cake will absorb most of sauce mixture.)

3. Before serving, in small bowl, beat 1 cup whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Spread over cold cake. Sprinkle with cinnamon and strawberries. Cover and refrigerate any remaining cake.

Mocha Chiffon Cake

So here's the thing...

I made this cake like SOO fast, so excuse the terrible piping skills...but if you try this, make sure you have a lot of time to do things perfectly! Don't be scared, it is actually a pretty simple cake! And it looks like you spent a lot of time :p Originally, the plan was to make a Swiss Roll, but the cake I made started cracking when I tried to roll it. Which is why I ended up just making a rectangular layered cake. 

I made this cake for my Papi's birthday! Scroll down for more on that. 

For a good video on the step by step instructions, click here

AGH the frosting looks lopsided and awful. Just make yours straighter than mine! 

Ingredients:

5 large eggs (white and yolk separated)
1/4 cup sugar + 1/3 cup sugar
4 packets of Folgers Instant Espresso packets
1/3 cup hot water
3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil

Optional for decorations:

2 Pirouettes- Chocolate Hazelnut Wafers

2 Macarons

Cocoa powder and extra whipping cream

Directions:

Beat the egg yolk with the 1/4 cup sugar until light and pale.
Beat the egg white in another pan until frothy.
Add in the 1/3 cup sugar in two to three additions and the salt and peak till stiff peaks forms.
Mix coffee with the hot water and let it cool.
Mix the coffee and oil to the egg yolk batter and gently fold in the flour and baking powder sifted.
Mix in the egg white to the yolk mixture in two to three additions and trying not to deflate it.
Pour into well greases and lined pans .
Bake at  350 F for 9-12 minutes.
Let the cake cool down completely before applying the cream.

Ingredients for the Whipping Cream filling

1.5 cups Heavy whipping cream
about 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Whip cream on med-high speed until peaks form. Add sugar and fold in. You can adjust sweetness to your liking.

Ingredients for Mocha Buttercream

2 1/4 sticks of butter- room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 oz semi sweet baking chocolate
2 tbsp. heavy whipping cream

Directions

Beat butter together in a bowl bowl until pale and fluffy. Add powdered sugar. 

In a separate bowl, melt chocolate at 15 second intervals, stirring in between. Make sure you do this because the chocolate will burn! Then, when melted, add heavy whipping cream. You've made chocolate ganache! Add the ganache to the buttercream and fold. 

Assembly:

1) Trim edges of cake to make straight edges all around. 

2) Frost cake with a 1/4" layer of the Whipping Cream filling. Then cut into 4 equal long pieces. 

3) Stack cake one on top of the other. With the top piece. Take the whipped cream and spread it thinly over the entire cake. This is kind of like the "crumb coat" that some people do. It helps when you're frosting the outside later. 

4) Stick in the freezer for 10 minutes to make sure everything is stuck together well! 

5) Take buttercream and plop a whole bunch on top, then spread evenly over entire cake. 

6) Use extra buttercream and add nice edges ( I did a pretty bad job because I was rushing!!!) 

7) You can decorate with the pirouettes and macarons also! Be creative :) 

         

Ideally, you want to make the cake the day before and fridge it up so that yours doesnt look like this.. 

Happy Birthday Papi! 

The Lord has blessed me with the best. His love and passion for serving God's people all over the world is what has influenced me, my siblings, and so many others to use the talents God has given us for a greater purpose. Thank you for your sacrifices and for making all of the above possible. 

You've taught me many things but most importantly, you've set this example:

"9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." 

{Romans 12:9-18}

Funfetti Cake Push Pops!

Fun to eat and easy to make! Beth, the sous chef in this house, made them all by herself.

These are the coolest new fad in the home baking world! Bought these cute little things online at Amazon.com. Basically, take your fav box mix (ours is Funfetti), and bake on a sheet pan (9 x 13). Once cooled, take the bottom portion of the push pop and cut out little circle of cake. Start layering with frosting (from the can, makes your life so much easier!). Then decorate with a little rainbow sprinkles and they're the perfect gift for anybody =). In my opinion, so much better than cake pops because there are no hassles of the cake falling off the stick, or getting stuck in the chocolate. We all know we've been there before. These push pops leave room for messy, impatient bakers like me! 

Happy push pop making! 

-B

Red Velvet Cake

Made this Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese filling and buttercream icing for Andrea's graduation gift!
Filled with cream cheese icing, smothered in buttercream and decorated with extra cake crumbs and buttercream swirls. All recipes courtesy of the Crumb Boss!

Red Velvet Cake
Swiss Buttercream
Cream Cheese Icing



the hungry monkey

Ribbon Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

I made this super simple pirouette ice cream cake for Mother's Day! There were layers of Chocolate Cake between Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream with a layer of Chocolate magic shell on top. The idea came from Haagen Daaz Ice Cream Ribbon Cake that I saw in the store when I went in on Free Scoop Day! :)  I just baked layers of chocolate cake, and filled it with ice cream. The decorations are whipped cream and chocolate jimmies. The sides are garnished with Pirouettes Chocolate Hazelnut flavor. Tie it off with a ribbon and you're done!

Ribbon Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

1 box Devils food cake mix

2 cans of Pirouette Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies (find them at Walmart, Target, supermarkets, etc)

1 gallon of Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream (or your favorite ice cream flavor!)

1 bottle of Magic Shell- Chocolate or Reeses flavor :P

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped until stiff

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Bake the Chocolate Cake in 8 inch round pans. You need 2 layers.

Once cooled, line the bottom of a springform pan with cooking spray and a piece of parchment paper.

Layer the first layer of chocolate cake then pack in the ice cream on top. Then place the 2nd layer of cake on top. Freeze for one hour.

Whip up the whipping cream with the sugar. Place into a pastry bag.

Put a thin layer of whipped cream all over the cake layer. Freeze for another 30-45 minutes.

Make sure your Magic Shell is at room temp. If not, microwave for 10-15 seconds so that it is pourable. Pour it all over the frozen whipped cream and it should immediately harden. This will form a sort of sealant around the top of your cake.

Cut the pirouettes to match the height of your cake, leaving a little extra on top to cover the unevenness. Carefully stick each pirouette around the cake, you will probably use almost all of the 2 cans.

Decorate the top of the cake with large swirls of whipped cream using your pastry bag and a large star tip. Garnish with chocolate sprinkles and a couple of your extra pirouettes!

Take a piece of thick ribbon and tie it in a nice bow around your cake.

Freeze for several hours or overnight before serving!

Enjoy!

le hungry monkey

Black and White Cupcakes with a SURPRISE!

Last week, I was asked by my mom's best friend to make some cupcakes for her friend's bridal shower. The theme was black and white, so I immediately thought chocolate and vanilla. However, I knew I wanted to add an extra POP to these cupcakes to make them even better. So I went on YouTube and searched black and white cupcake recipes. I've always been pretty lazy about making my own cupcakes from scratch because it takes a really long time, and usually I'm just doing a quick thing and grab a box of Pillsbury cake mix. This particular time, though, was my first paid job, so I decided to find something that would be a hit. Thank goodness for YT! I discovered a channel called Crumb Boss TV (http://www.youtube.com/user/steph91069) and found that they have UHH-mazing videos here on basically anything under the sun that you need to make. PLUS, they are super entertaining! I've been addicted to their videos so the recipe below is my attempt at making Crumb Boss' Oreo cupcakes with her famous Swiss Meringue Buttercream. All recipes were taken from http://www.crumbboss.com/.

Click here for the chocolate cupcake recipe. What I did was I added a Golden Oreo to represent the "white" part of the theme into the cupcake. This adds a really great surprise when the person bites into the cupcake!
Click here for the buttercream recipe. This recipe is super fattening but super worth it! She makes it really easy to follow her methods. Go out and try it!

I also made some candy chocolates using black and white Wilton Candy Melts. I bought these at Michaels and they were on sale for $2.49 each. I think it added a really nice touch to the top of the cupcake. Here is where you can go to find these molds. It's super simple, but takes a long time.
I also added some black jimmies and white sand sugar to decorate the cupcake.

Overall, I'm really happy with how these cupcakes turned out. The only thing that was disappointing was the the cupcakes turned out in different sizes because of the different cupcake pans. I discovered that the older cupcake pan tends to make the cupcake flatten out rather than puff up.

Oops! Another thing, I ended up with so many extra cupcakes because I had to make the recipe twice! The first time, Beth and I forgot to put the Oreo in! We were so upset.


Thanks for reading!
le hungry monkey